Fewer than 4 million viewers watched ITV1's coverage of Liverpool's 1-1 draw with Maccabi Haifa, which secured their place in this year's Champions League group stage.

The second round, second leg qualifier, which gave Liverpool a 3-2 win on aggregate over their Israeli opponents, averaged 3.9 million viewers, just under one in five of the available TV audience, across two hours of coverage from 7.30pm, according to unofficial overnight figures.

But it was nearly a million viewers down on Liverpool's Champions League qualifying match against CSKA Sofia at the same time last year, which averaged 4.8 million viewers.

ITV1's football coverage was also beaten by BBC1's Holby City, with 6.4 million viewers, and the final episode of postie drama Sorted, which had 4.9 million, a 23% share.